Latest / Daily Classic Science Fiction Books / 10 - The Door Through Space - Marion Zimmer Bradley

Transcript

10 - The Door Through Space - Marion Zimmer Bradley · Daily Classic Science Fiction Books

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter ten. A few days later, I found myself nearing
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the end of the trail. It was twilight in Charin,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: hot and reeking, with a gipsy glare of fires which
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: burned smoking. At the far end of the street of
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the Six Shepherds. I crouched in the shadow of a wall, waiting,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: my skin itched from the dirty shirt cloak I hadn't
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: changed in days. Shabbiness is wise in non human parts,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and dry towners think too much of water to waste
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: much of it in superfluous washing. Anyhow, I scratched unobtrusively
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and glanced cautiously down the street. It seemed empty except
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: for a few sodden derelict sprawled in doorways. The Street
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of the Six Shepherds is a filthy slum, but I
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: made sure my skin was loose. Charin is not a
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: particularly safe town, even for dry towners, and especially not
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: for earthmen at any time. Even with what Dallis had
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: told me, the search had been difficult. Charin is not
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Shainsaw in Charin, where human and non human live closer
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: together than anywhere else on the planet. Information about such men,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: as recall can be bought, but the policy is to
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: let the buyer. Beware that's fair enough, because the life
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: of the cellar has a way of not being worth
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: much afterward. Either. A dirty, dust laden wind was blowing
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: up along the street, heavy with strange smells. The pungent
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: reek of incense from a street shrine was in the smells,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the heavy acrid odor that made my skin crawl. In
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the hills behind Charin, the ghost wind was rising. Born
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: on this wind, the yamen would sweep down from the mountains,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: and everything human or nearly human, would scatter in their path.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: They would range through the quarter all night, and in
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the morning they would melt away until the ghost wind
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: blew again. At any other time I would already have
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: taken cover. I fancied that I could hear borne on
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: the wind, the far away yelping, and envision the plumed,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: taloned figures which would come leaping down the street. In
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: that moment, the quiet of the street split asunder. From somewhere,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: a girl's voice screamed in shrill, pain or panic. Then
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I saw her, dodging between two of the chinked pebble.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: She was a child, thin and barefoot, a long tangle
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of black hair flying loose as she darted and twisted
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to elude the lumbering fellow at her heels, his outstretched
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: paw jerked cruelly at her slim wrist. The little girl
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: screamed and wrenched herself free, and threw herself straight on me,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: wrapping herself around my neck with the violence of a
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: storm wind. Her hair got in my mouth, and her
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: small hands gripped at my neck like a cat's flexed claws.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Oh help me, she gasped between sobs. Don't let him
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: get me, don't, And even in the broken plea, I
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: took it in that the little ragamuffin did not speak
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: the jargon of that slum, but the pure speech of
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Shane saw. What I did then was as automatic as
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: if it had been Julie. I pulled the kid loose,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: shoved her behind me, and scowled at the brute, who
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: lurched towards us. Make yourself scarce, I advised, we don't
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: chase little girls where I come from. Haul off now.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: The man reeled. I smelled the rankness of his rags
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: as he thrust one grimy paw at the girl. I
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: never was the hero type, but I'd started something which
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I had to carry through. I thrust myself between them
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: and put my hand on the skin again, you dry towner.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: The man set up a tipsy howl, and I sucked
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: in my breath. Now I was in for it. Unless
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I got out of there damned fast, i'd lose what
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: had come all the way to Charon to find. I
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: felt like handing the girl over. For all I knew
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the bully could be her father, and she was properly
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: in line for spanking. This wasn't any of my business.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: My business lay at the end of the street, where
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Rakhal was waiting at the fires. He wouldn't be there
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: long already. The smell of the ghost wind was heavy
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and harsh, and little flurries of sand went racing along
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the street, lifting the flaps of the doorways. But I
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: did nothing so sensible. The big lunk made a grab
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: at the girl, and I whipped out my skin and
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: pantomimed get going, dry towner. He spat out the word
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: like philth, his pig eyes narrowing to slits. Some of
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: the ape earth man trun in. Someone took up the howl.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: There was a stir, a rustle all along the street
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: that had seemed empty, and from nowhere. It seemed the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: space in front of me was crowded with shadowy forms,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: human and otherwise earth man. I felt the muscles across
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: my belly nodding into a band of ice. I didn't
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: believe I'd given myself away as an earth Man. The
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: bully was using this time dishonored tactic of stirring up
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: a riot in a hurry, but just the same, I
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: looked quickly round, hunting a path of escape. Put your
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: skin and his gut, Spilker, grab him Hi, Earthman Hi.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: It was the last cry that made me panic. Through
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the sultry glare at the end of the street, I
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: could see the plumed, taloned figures of the Yeomen gliding
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: through the banners of smoke. The crowd melted open. I
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: didn't stop to reflect on the fact, suddenly very obvious,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: that Recall couldn't have been at the fires at all,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: and that my informant had led me into an open trap,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: a nest of Yeomen already inside charin. The crowd edged
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: back and muttered, and suddenly I made my choice. I whirled,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: snatched up the girl in my arms, and ran straight
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: toward the advancing figures of the Yeomen. Nobody followed me.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I even heard a choked shout that sounded like a warning.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: I heard the yelping shrieks of the Yeoman grow to
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: a wild howl, And at the last minute, when their stiff,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: rustling plumes loomed only a few yards away, I dived
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: sidewa into an alley, stumbled on some rubbish, and spilled
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the girl down. Run kid. She shook herself like a
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: puppy climbing out of the water. Her small fingers closed
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: like a steel trap on my wrist. This way, she
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: urged in a hasty whisper, and I found myself plunging
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: out the far end of the alley and into the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: shelter of a street shrine. The sour stink of incense
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: smarted in my nostrils, and I could hear the yelping
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: of the Yeoman as they leaped and rustled down the alley,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: their cold and poisonous eyes searching out the recesses where
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I crouched with the girl. Here, she panted, stand close
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: to me on the stone. I drew back, startled. Oh,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: don't stop to argue, she whimpered, Come here, high earth man,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: there is the girl's arms flung round me again. I
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: felt her slight, hard body pressing on mine, and she
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: literally hauled me toward the pattern of stones in the
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: center of the shrine. I wouldn't have been human if
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I hadn't caught her closer. Yet the world reeled, the
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: street disappeared in a cone of spinning lights, stars danced crazily,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and I plunged down through a widening gulf of empty space.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Locked in the girl's arms, spun plunged head over heels
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: through tilting lights and shadows that flung us through the
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: eternities of free fall. The yelping of the Yeomen whirled
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: away in unimaginable distances, and for a second I felt
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the unmerciful blackout of a power dive, with blood breaking
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: from my nostrils and filling my mouth. End of Chapter ten.